A member of the House of Burgesses, a legislative body in colonial America, established by the Virginia Company to provide civil rule in the colonies.
Origin
From Middle English burgeis, from Anglo-Norman burgeis, of Proto-Germanic origin; either from Late Latin burgensis (from Latin *burgus), or from Frankish, both from Proto-Germanic *burgz ("stronghold, city"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. See also bourgeois, burgish.
Modern English dictionary
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